Alcohol — is it a Food, 



141 



one of three methods ; by checking waste ; by a so 

 called stimulant action, or by becoming a material with 

 which to carry on the processes of oxidation and nutrition, 

 and deflecting them from a less to a more healthy action. 

 If now, he argues, it can be shown that alcohol is decom- 

 posed within the system, the first and second veiws fall to 

 the ground, since the power to check waste by a coagula- 

 tion of the bodily tissues or to goad them into greater ac- 

 tion is attributed to alcohol only and not to any of the 

 products of its decomposition. From the experiments of 

 Dupre and Anstie he then shows that within certain limits 

 absorbed alcohol is decomposed within the system and but 

 a minute quantity eliminated unchanged — and of this fact 

 there is of course no doubt — and comes to the conclusion 

 that alcohol operates by overcoming the opposition or re- 

 sistance displayed by the molecules of the body, which, by 

 their coming together, perform the various mechanical 

 movements which the body is capable of making and that 

 this is the " interior work which is performed by heat in 

 the body," — ''the process of forcing the molecules to take 

 up new positions." 



]N'ow this is ingenious and part of the reasoning rests on fact 

 but the conclusions seems faulty because the data upon 

 which they are based are mere assumptions. In other 

 words if we would accept this theory it must either be 

 shown that the process of decomposition which alcohol 

 undergoes in its passage through the system is one of 

 rapid oxidation analogous to combustion, or that it imparts 

 force and enables the system to do a greater amount of 

 work. Let us consider each position separately and 

 briefly. 



And first, as to the decomposition of alcohol, we are to 

 remember that there are two ways in which it may oxi- 

 dize; either actively as in its combustion with the produc- 



